5th May 2008, 00:51

Exactly! Me too, I have 2 A-160 made in 1999 -1 Elegance and 1 Classic Plus- both assembled in Brazil, and I have never had a single problem. The Classic Plus has 171,000kms and I haven't even changed the battery. It seems like we were talking about very different cars. My experience is that this are extremely durable and reliable cars.

29th Jul 2008, 14:12

I can't believe what poor quality is Mercedes Benz A class 160 Avantgarde. Only 5 years old, 52634 miles on clock and already total gearbox failure. Mercedes quote for repairs £6500 - £7000!

28th Aug 2008, 00:41

Never again will I own an A160.

I bought a 1999 at 29,000kms, at 29,500kms the car went into limp mode, had to change the central console gear shift.

At 35,000km the control body valve in the gearbox had to be replaced.

At 38,000kms the starter motor and ring gear were replaced.

At 38500kms the rear suspension needed new rubbers.

Now it has a clonking sound coming from the right front suspension. I doubt whether I will get NZ$5000 for the car.

Was told by the agent to only buy a pre 1986 merc or not at all.

21st Apr 2009, 12:57

Just got me an A Class 160 Elegance and the dashboard indicating an F. Worried after reading comments in this forum. What should I do??

HELP.

JOBS.

15th Jul 2009, 12:27

Get rid of it. My mom was GIVEN an A140 by her sister, and even that was not such a good deal. It's costing quite a bit to get through the MOT, and has had numerous problems. Also had a dangerous fuel leak.

MB is building complex junk, buy a Toyota.

10th May 2010, 13:19

I have a A140 auto 2001 model with 50000 on the clock. Got the dreaded F code. Mercedes want £1825.00 for the gear box and £640 plus VAT for the T converter with a two year warranty). Plus once I have fitted it all to the car, I would have to pay them to have the car coded by themselves. Apart from that it's OK.

They don't build them like they use to. It's a nice looking car in the drive, but apart from that, not much use as a car unless you have lots and lots of money and plenty of time. Do you think the new ones, now that they have changed the gear box design, are any better, or would we have to wait two or three years to find out?

27th May 2010, 19:47

I have a 1999 A class 170CDi Avantgarde with 128000 miles on it. I have had it from new, and other than wear and tear problems, I have been delighted with it.

The fuel consumption is great, plus it is pretty nippy.

The last MOT cost me £170 to pass.

I am sorry to see people that have had problems with them, but I love mine..

10th Jun 2010, 04:17

I love driving my 2007 A-class, but after three years of careful use (driving for fuel efficiency, using the cruise control, and doing under 30,000 miles) the 'brake wear' light came on. I assumed this meant only that I needed new brake pads and would be cheap to fix, but Mercedes informed me I'd need to replace all four pads and discs to the tune of around £700. I managed to get the parts and labour done by an independent garage for less than half the price, but I'm still mystified that a relatively expensive, high-quality car that I was having regularly serviced by Mercedes could wear out seemingly much more quickly than the car I had before (Peugeot 206, which after 6 years from new had only had a couple of new tyres).

I'm now torn. My heart says get a new Merc; my wallet (and my head), says return to Peugeot.

17th Jun 2010, 23:15

The A class are great cars precisely for their durability and reliability - and time will tell better than anything else, when these cars will be still in the road and others from different companies won't. Anyway, it must be said that that statement applies only to models with manual gearboxes - even better with the normal clutch, but AKS are also good. The automatic transmission in the first generation A classes have design problems - so told by a Mercedes technician. So, if you have to change transmissions, get a second hand -or new- manual gearbox and clutch, and then you will have a car forever - or just buy a manual gearbox car, with good service records. If you just can't drive manual, then go for the new generation - although I prefer the old one, I have seen both carefully and I think it is tougher - just look where the alternator is in the new one...

Mine is a 1999 model with 215,000kms on the clock and I have never had a trouble with it, just normal service - at times neglected even. It runs as firs day, and the other ones I know of, are just as good as mine.

Anyway, Mercedes quality is very obviously going in the right direction, and new A classes shouldn't have any of these automatic transmission problems.

Cheers, and sorry to hear about your automatic transmission problems.

22nd Jun 2010, 10:02

We bought an A160 52 plate A-Class in August 2009 for a (reasonable) £4K. Should have taken it for a test drive.

Engine failed and had to be towed to the nearest Mercedes garage.

It took them nearly two weeks to diagnose that one of the cylinders had lost pressure, and they charged me 1 1/2 hours labour for it.

I ran every day trying to get some info on what was happening, but they never called me back.

I need a car because I work and have children who go to school, so a car is vital.

As the engine cannot be worked on in the car because of the great design, it has to be taken out, which was a minimum of a days' labour and £1,000 before they've even done anything. So to put it back would be another £1,000 plus any additional work/materials to fix it.

They had effectively written off my car with their extortionate labour charges of £128/hour!

Anyway, to cut a very long story short, the engine was totally knackered and had to be replaced, which we did, but NOT at Mercedes as they'd priced themselves out of the market.

The power steering has now gone, the engine management light is on, and the car constantly loses power.

Mercedes just washed their hands with us and couldn't care less.

It's going in to Mercedes in a few days to fix these faults once and for all, and then it's going.

I feel angry every time I drive it, and hate it.

14th Oct 2010, 13:11

After buying an A Class 2001, I had every problem a car can have.

The automatic gear got stuck; it showed letter F on the dashboard. The mechanic said it will cost nearly two thousand pounds to fix. How can Mercedes make such a car? I will never buy Mercedes for the rest of my life.